Abortion access

Why do women seek abortions?

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Why women want to have an abortion:

About 43% of American women will have one (or occasionally more) abortions during their lifetime. Women's centers and hospitals perform more than a million abortions per year. Abortions are obviously in great demand. But why?

Women have many reasons for not wanting to be pregnant, and thus to seek an abortion. Many are related to:

In a study by Torres and Forrest (1998) -- based on 1987 data -- women gave an average of 3.7 reasons for wanting an abortion: _1,2

Why women decide to have an abortion late in pregnancy:

In 2001, About 59% of abortions were performed before the 9^th week of gestation; A further 19% are performed during the 9^th or 10^th week. A further 20% were performed between 11 and 20 weeks inclusive. These data show a gradual shift towards more abortions being performed earlier in gestation.

In 1987. women who have later-term abortions -- 16 weeks or more since last menstrual period -- give a variety of reasons for their decision. This appears to be the most recent data available. It was republished in a report by Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) & The Guttmacher Institute (AGI) in 2005, Women gave an average of 2.2 reasons for a late-term abortion:

At least some of the 11% who gave other reasons may well have have delayed revealing their pregnancies until later, so that friends and family would not try to convince her to not have an abortion.

Why women decide to have an abortion very late in pregnancy:

Only 1.4% of abortions are done after 20 weeks. In 1997, only about 0.08% of abortions were performed after 24 weeks, at a time when the fetus may be viable. ₂

There has been a great deal of controversy about the use of intact D&X abortions, commonly called partial birth abortions, in which the fetus is partly delivered feet-first, an opening is made in the back of its skull, its brains are removed by suction, its head collapses, and its body is removed, dead, from the woman. Pro-life information sources tend to go into great detail about the details of the procedure. We have never seen a pro-life information source describe why D&X procedures are done.

Very few abortions after 20 weeks are elective; almost all are done for medical reasons. All or essentially all medial associations in U.S. states and Canadian provinces have a gestational time limit beyond which elective abortions cannot be performed. This is typically 20 or 21 weeks. The individual associations have different rules. However, in most areas of North America, medical associations allow D&X procedures only if there is a very severe and serious threat to the woman's health, or a threat to the woman's life, or when the fetus is very severely malformed. More information

References:

1. "Abortion FAQ," Planned Parenthood^® of Central and Northern Arizona, at: http://www.ppcna.org/abortfaq.html
2. "An Overview of Abortion in the United States," Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) & The Guttmacher Institute (AGI), 2005-JUN, Page 10, at: http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/abslides/ You need software to read these files. It can be obtained free from: Information came from a report by Torres and Forrest (1988) and is based on 1987 data.
3. Ibid, Page 13.